Your reasoning regarding the poster would be acceptable if the poster
itself did not portray such racist violence.

The Star of David is worn by all Jews. It is not a symbol of the State
of Israel, which one can agree is pursuing racist violence against Palestinian
Arabs, and is making no allowance for a peaceful solution to a problem
being exacerbated by many political interests.

The Muslim sword of The Holy War is shown thrust into that symbol. That
makes no allowance for the feelings of those Jews who wear the Star and
who give no support for the current Israeli Government's policies. There
is a total difference between asking people to demonstrate against a country
which shows racism and showing dramatically agressive images in this place
where people wish to live in peace together.

Yours sincerely

D.L.

Manager

Reply Three

19th July 1988

Dear Mr. L.

Thank You for your letter.

In you letter you suggest that the poster "portrays racist
violence" since it shows a sword thrust into the "Star of
David" which is worn by all Jews.

This is not correct. The star depicted in the poster is not the "Star
of David which is word by all Jews". The star shown, blue with white background,
is taken out of the zionist flag. As such it is not a symbol of Judaism,
but a symbol of Zionism. It is a shameful misuse of the Star of David.

The Muslims hold great respect for Prophet David (peace and blessings
of God be upon him) as the reciever of Divine Revelation; the Psalms. We
would never intentionally attack the Star of David. But since the 'zionist
star' symbolises racism in Palestine, it is our duty as human beings to
attack it. This is what the poster portrays.

To illustrate my point, I will give an example: the swastika. The swastika
was a symbol used by people belonging to the aryan race, originating in
ancient persia. When the aryans invaded India they brought with them this
symbol, and today their descendants in northern India still use this symbol
to decorate for example cakes on religious festivals. In the 1940's, as
you are aware, a man called Hitler used this harmless symbol to represent
his facist ideology, Nazism. This was a misuse of the symbol. And as such,
when we portray an attack on his barbaric, facist ideology by depicting
a swastika with a sword thrust into it, it is interpreted as an attack
on racism. No one interprets it as an attack on the aryan race, those indians
of Northern India do not see it as an attack against them.

Once again let me repeat, we do not hold any malice in our hearts against
jews. They are our brothers and sisters. In the Holy Qur'an the Jews and
Christians are refered to as the 'people of the Book', those who have recieved
Divine Revelations, as such we hold them especially dear.

Finally, in your letter you refered to "The Muslim sword of The Holy
War". The term Jihad, mistranslated to "Holy War" is misused constantly
by the media inorder to dramatise a news report. Please give me this opportunity
to show what Muslims mean by this term. Literally, Jihad in arabic means
'struggle', to struggle in the Way of God. Jihad is of two kinds: Major
Jihad and Minor Jihad. Major Jihad is the resistance against inner enemies.
i.e. unruly passions and campaign against mean qualities and moral degradations
like ignorance, fear, injustice, pride, selfishness, envy etc. Minor Jihad
is campaign against external enemies: enemies of truth, enemies of justice
and enemies of virtue. Fighting the racist state forms part of the latter
Jihad.